My main responsibilities at Preston Taylor Ministries involve working with the after school program Monday-Thursday. Every day is different, there are many ups and downs, but I do love (nearly) every minute of it! However, I also work with a high school program on Monday and Thursday evenings. The program is called SaLT (Servant and Leadership Training.)
SaLT involves nine high school students interested in exploring opportunities for the present and the future. Each Monday the students meet with tutors for two hours, eat dinner together, then meet with a mentor. Students are paired with an adult mentor who they meet with once a week to explore lessons from the Bible, as well as modern examples of teenagers who beat the odds and excel. In my observation though, all the mentors provide so much more than just Monday lessons; they are a support system, and great network of adults to whom these high schoolers are exposed.
Thursday evenings also start out with two hours working with tutors. This time is geared towards working on homework, as well as studying/preparing for the ACT, which is needed to apply to college. One of the tutors is currently working on her masters in nutrition at Lipscomb University; she is vegan, dairy free and gluten free and she cooks dinner for the group every Thursday. The food is always delicious! It has been so interesting to see how she cooks in order to fall within all her restrictions, but she has yet to disappoint me (the students are always a bit more wary than I am since they haven't heard of some of the food she serves!) We have had sloppy joes (made with chickpeas instead of meat--so convincing!), enchilada casserole, marinated portabello mushrooms with hummus and roasted red pepper, baked sweet potato with black beans, cheese and sour cream, and chocolate ganache pie. Simply divine! I have loved that little snipit of nutrition and excitement in my food each week since my options are limited with our stipend. Anyways....after dinner the students have a life skills lesson taught by me. I took on this task when the youth director went on maternity leave in October, but now she is back and I still find myself in charge! It started out with lessons about good interview skills, proper etiquette, phone manners, etc. Now I am teaching a curriculum about financial responsibility called FutureProfits. We started by exploring our ideas about money based on the community and environment around us, what is means to make fast money versus working for money, and how we have to ability to shape our life based on the decisions we make (essentially we do not have to be stuck in the situation we may be born into, but through hard work and determination we can work towards a bigger goal.) Now we are in the middle of a budget simulation where each student received a job with an annual, and monthly salary with which they need to determine their expenses. It has been a unique experience to prepare these lessons, and they have been mainly rooted in discussion rather than a lecturing atmosphere. I have really enjoyed hearing the student perspectives and facilitating discussion based around the community. With the recent simulation the lessons have begun to feel much more like I am a personal finance teacher at school, and I don't know that any of us enjoy that prospect. I am trying to keep it light and interesting so we will see how it goes!
Teaching a SaLT has been a wonderful experience, and quite a change from the after school program. I am glad I have the opportunity to spend time with the younger kids as well as the high school students.
I am still enjoying my time here immensely and can't wait to see what the next six months brings!
